by Logan Fox
Pearl yanked her arm, screaming.
A head popped out of the bag like a morbid jack-in-the-box. Hair caught in the zipper, snagging it so it didn’t — thank God — land in the girl’s lap.
Pearl’s scream tapered off as she drew breath. The cops around her had all taken a step back as soon as that head had appeared, but now they surged forward, all talking at once.
“—don’t touch—”
“—get forensic—”
“—fucking head doing in—”
Keith slid the last three feet on his knees. Pearl had just drawn breath for a third scream. Her voice was already cracking, her vocal chords one scream away from snapping like twine.
He stabbed the syringe into her neck, not bothering to mask its entry.
Pearl didn’t scream again. She turned wide, petrified eyes to him. Eyes that, he knew, had seen too much.
“Gia,” the girl whispered. And then, with a slow, muddled shake of her head, added, “It was her talking to me, wasn’t it? Telling me to run.”
“It’s okay, Pe—” Keith cut off, changing what he’d been going to say. “It’s okay, Pearl. Just relax.”
The girl’s eyes fluttered. She reached out, clinging to Keith’s arm. “They said…” she murmured.
Keith dipped his head closer.
“They said they buried her by the maples.”
“Okay,” Keith said, not knowing what else he could possibly say right then.
“You’ll find her?”
“Yes. I mean, the cops will.”
“Find her.” Pearl slipped away from him then. Chelsea caught her before she could tumble to the gravel. “Find Gia.”
Keith watched as a pair of paramedics hoisted the limp girl onto a gurney and trundled her away. Chelsea got to her feet, sighing heavily as she dusted her hands. A cop began herding them back, and they both moved without resisting. The cops were all on edge, shifting with barely concealed annoyance as they waited for the district attorney to arrive to give them leave to start searching the place. Keith didn’t envy the guys who had to detail that underground church. They’d be in there for days.
And the blood…
It was Sunday morning, the day bright, the sun shining hard and unrelenting on the immaculate gardens and beautiful villa they stood in front of. The sound of cops growling into hand-held radios, car engines idling, and phones ringing filled the air.
There was a crunch of gravel. One of the guys that had been the scene before he’d arrived — the one that had been giving CPR to a victim — drew to a halt beside him and Chelsea.
Keith started as something fell on his forehead. He reached up, touching a fingertip to the drop of rain. Head tipping back, he stared up at the cloudless sky.
“Raining?” he murmured, half to himself.
Beside him, the brown-haired man let out a strangled sound. Keith turned to him, absently touching another raindrop where it landed on his cheek.
The stranger lifted a hand, as if in apology, and then pressed fingertips to his trembling lips. He took a deep breath and then tugged his hand away, clutching his waist in both hands as he let his breath out.
“Sorry.” The man’s voice dipped. “It’s just… Tanner—” a quick, apologetic glance toward Keith and Chelsea “—the owner.” Those lips trembled before the man could control himself again. “He… he always loved sun showers.”
The man made a vague gesture toward the sky from which, impossibly, a faint drizzle now fell.
“Used to call them a fox’s wedding.”
The End
Epilogue
Blood Money
Pearl woke to the crash-sigh of breaking waves. Her eyes opened, fixing for a moment on the lace curtain billowing away from the hotel’s partly-open window. Her eyes closed again as she surrendered herself back to sleep’s numbing embrace.
A hand slid over her waist. Fingertips hooked into her hip bone. Pearl murmured as her naked body was drawn over the silken sheets, warmth replaced by coolness.
Her ass melded into the heat behind her. Pearl shifted, grinding hard into the man behind her, smiling into her pillow.
“Morning,” Greg said, his voice rough from sleep. “Sleep okay?”
“Yup.” Pearl sighed, her shoulders slumping. “You?”
“Still sleeping, man,” Greg mumbled. This, despite the fact that his hand had begun exploring the naked curves of her body.
“Sure feels like it,” Pearl said.
“Oh, that? Figment of your imagination.”
“What, all ten inches of it?”
“You do me a great honor, m’lady,” Greg murmured into her ear.
“That’s where you’re wrong, valiant knight. You’ll be desecrating my honor in about… hmm… two minutes?”
“Still sleepin’” Greg protested sleepily.
“That’s a real thing, you know,” Pearl murmured, stretching. Her eyes opened to watch that fluttering curtain. “Sleep sex.”
“It is?” Greg’s mouth found the back of her neck. He nuzzled into her hair, then pushed it away with his nose and chin. “Think I need to see someone about it?”
Pearl shrugged, shivering when his teeth found her shoulder blade. She twisted, hiding her smile behind her shoulder. “Nah. I don’t mind.”
“Sure?” Greg’s chestnut-brown eyes became hooded as he trailed kisses down her arm. “I mean, sleep deprivation can lead—”
“Totally worth it,” Pearl said.
Greg murmured happily into the crook of her elbow. She giggled, tugging her arm away and hooking it around his neck. He blinked up at her, mouth sliding into a wide grin.
“I think I’m awake.” He pressed his lips to her collarbone. “But how would I know, like really know? This could be a dream, man.”
“I guess…” Pearl mused, squirming as Greg’s mouth worked its way down to her bellybutton. “But so what, right? I prefer dreams to reality, anyway.”
Greg paused, lifting his head from her flat belly and staring up at her.
Pearl stiffened at the seriousness in his eyes.
“What?”
“I…” Greg let out a sigh, folding his hands over her stomach and resting his head on his knuckles. “I drew a statement at the ATM yesterday.”
“Okay,” Pearl said with a shrug. She lifted herself onto her elbows. “So what now? We’re broke already?”
“Not from my account.”
“Mine?” Pearl frowned at him. “I’m sure I had at least two hundred—”
“Try more like a hundred thousand, two hundred and fifty.”
“…in there.” Pearl’s mouth tightened. “What? They paid me?”
“They paid you like six months ago,” Greg said. “So there’s some interest in there, too.”
His eyes latched onto hers. A flash of concern tugged a faint line between his brows.
“Pearl? What are you—”
“I’ll… close my account today.” Pearl looked away, fixing on that ephemeral curtain as the breeze toyed with it.
“You can’t—”
“I don’t want their fucking blood money, Greg.” Pearl shook hair out of her face. She’d let it grow out on Greg’s insistence, and was still getting used to how it kept getting in her way.
“So what are you—”
“I’ll give it to someone.”
“One of your many friends?”
She ignored the barb, jutting out her chin. “A charity, then.”
“One of the less corrupt ones?”
“Then… then—” She flicked her hand, letting out a huff of irritation. “An animal shelter.”
“That sounds good,” Greg said. “There’s a dog—”
“Too loud. Always barking and whining.”
“Then we’ll find a cat—”
“Those smarmy motherfuckers?” Pearl shook her shoulders, twisting her mouth. “Stayed with a family that had cats. Place always smelled of piss.”
“Then what? Horses? Birds—”
“Foxes,” he repeated carefully.
Pearl ignored that worm of caution in his voice. It had been six months already. He knew they could talk about what had happened and yet, every time the subject came up, he would sidle around it like a soldier around a land mine.
Did he really expect her to explode and take off his leg?
“Foxes,” she said again, adding a nod. “I’m sure somewhere in the world there’s someone who needs to feed a fox.”
Greg smiled up at her, but there was a hint of hesitation to his fingers as they trailed over her hip bone again.
Pearl laughed at his expression and tugged her thighs an inch apart, her knee slamming into Greg’s elbow. He grimaced playfully at her before dipping his head down and grazing his teeth over her pubic bone.
“Or you could start your own,” Greg said.
“What, a charity?”
“A shelter. You already have a name for it.”
“I do?”
Her eyes slid closed as Greg’s lips brushed over her clit, sending a shudder through her warm, tight muscles.
“Yeah,” he murmured, warm breath washing over her sex. “Feed a Fox.”
Pearl stretched again, and let her legs fall open all the way for him.
“Sounds good,” she mumbled.
He slid over her knee, jamming his body between her thighs — perhaps so she couldn’t close them and deny him access to her. She liked doing that, even just as a tease. Liked making him have to work to get to her. To please her.
Greg’s tongue flicked over her sex, drawing an electric sizzle through her. She arched her back, her hands sliding under the pillow behind her. They brushed cold steel. Shit, she really had to stop sleeping with Greg’s gun. And yet, every night when she turned in, she’d slip it under her pillow.
She hurriedly averted her fingers, gripping the top of the mattress instead. Greg’s hands skidded over her ribs, warm on her breasts as he gently massaged them. Pearl let out a low moan when he forced his tongue deep inside her, tasting every inch of her sex before flicking her clit again.
He slid up, teeth catching one of her nipples as he passed a breast.
Pearl squirmed under him, lifting her knees and hooking her ankles behind Greg’s back.
“Fucking tease,” she murmured, arching under him as his hands slid between them.
He grabbed her sex, squeezing until she gasped, and then grinned down at her.
“Got a problem with that?”
For response, Pearl bucked her hips. Greg’s smile widened, his fingers sinking an inch deep inside her. He stared into her face, lips parting as her mouth twisted with pleasure, eyes fluttering as they threatened to close under the manipulation of those fingers.
Heat pushed against her sex, strobing from Greg’s cock as he shimmied between her legs. He hadn’t settled his weight on her yet — he held himself up on one elbow, brown eyes hooded as he watched her respond to the two fingers he had inside her.
“Get in already,” Pearl muttered, bucking her hips again.
“Whatever happened to foreplay?” Greg asked, dipping his head to brush his tongue over her nipple.
“Same thing that’s going to happen to your breakfast if you don’t hurry up and get inside me.”
“Mmm… French toast?”
“Yes, fuck, whatever.” Pearl arched her back, forcing more of her breast into Greg’s waiting mouth. He gave her a few tingling caresses with his tongue before lifting his head.
“What if I wanted an omelet?”
“Then you’ll get a fucking—” Pearl began.
Greg forced himself into her without warning, ending her sentence with a ragged gasp. He folded over her, skin flush with hers.
“Bacon and eggs?”
Pearl made a sound that could’ve meant anything, her eyes squeezing shut as Greg drew out of her.
“Anything?”
“Yes, anything. God, just—”
He thrust into her again, ending that sentence with the same stifled gasp as before. Pearl writhed over that cock of his, still amazed that he didn’t tear something every time they fucked.
Wait, should she still call it fucking? Wasn’t it ‘making love’ by now?
Greg’s mouth found the side of her neck. He slid out of her, leaving behind just a teasing inch of himself as he nuzzled her throat. He wrapped his fingers around his cock, jerking off against her as she squirmed under him. Those fingers slammed against her pelvic bones, driving her into a sullen, desperate frenzy the longer he denied her his cock.
“Greg,” she groaned.
“Yeah, say my name bitch,” Greg said with a laugh.
Pearl bucked her hips, but he drew out of her entirely. Her eyes opened, fixing on him. She was already breathing hard, her breasts pushing into him on every inhale.
He was so heavy on her. So hot. Greg released the grip he’d had on his dick, hands sliding over her skin to cup her face. She could smell herself on him, and parted her lips in expectation of one of those fingers sliding into her mouth.
But instead, Greg just stared down at her. The tip of his cock throbbed against her sex, barely touching her. She, in turn, ached in perfect time with him, her arousal leaking out of her as she squeezed herself in an attempt to end that pulsing agony.
“You know I love you, right?” Greg whispered down to her. His eyes flickered over her face, settling for a moment on her lips, her nose, her chin.
“Of course.” Her voice was husky with lust. She shifted under him, aching to have him inside her again.
“And you love me?”
Again she squirmed. Her eyes danced away from his, falling on the billowing curtain. For a moment, she could hear a wave crashing, could feel Greg’s breath on her cheek. And then she turned back to him, smiled up at him.
Her hands found his shoulders, tightening over the muscles there.
He’d been working out lately. They’d started taking runs together every morning, as early as they could manage. Most mornings, anyway. Okay, at least once a week.
Greg moved, sliding less than an inch inside her.
“Pearl?”
His voice was hesitant now.
She licked her lips, deepened her smile, and bucked her hips hard against him. This drove his cock into her, and for a moment she lost herself in the feel of him, eyes closing and nails digging into his skin.
He drew out. “Pearl.” His whisper sent flurries of passion crawling over her skin.
She found the back of his neck. Twined her fingers in his hair.
“I love you, Greg Prince. I love you and everything you’ve done for me.”
Greg’s lips moved into a smile. “Yeah?” he murmured.
“I do.” She sighed as Greg slid into her again, as she stretched around him. “And I love you more every day. Every minute.”
Greg’s hands tightened around her face. He thrust hard into her, shifting her an inch over the bed. His eyelids flickered before he forced them wide. Pearl gasped as one of his hands lifted away from her face, clutching the edge of the headboard above them. He rammed into her again, filling her with a stabbing pleasure that made her thighs clamp around his waist with shuddering intensity.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Love me enough to marry me?”
Pearl’s eyes shot open.
Greg stared down at her, lips parted, breathing coming hard and fast as he slammed into her again.
“What?”
He let out a growl, scooping her up and pinning her to headboard, her legs still wrapped around his waist. She groaned as his thumb found her clit, stroking her in time with his now slow, methodical thrusts.
God, this felt good. She never wanted this to end — this erotic tryst of theirs.
She didn’t want to stop hearing the sound of the ocean. Didn’t want to stop tasting the tang of its salty waters on her tongue. And she always wanted to feel th
is man inside her, filling her.
Loving her.
“Will you marry me, Pearl?” Greg asked, voice tight. His lips found her ear, tugging at a lobe.
She shuddered, urging his mouth towards hers. They kissed — hard and furious — as Greg’s movements became frantic against her.
“Yes,” she managed, surprised that she could find words behind those coruscating waves of pleasure strumming her.
Greg cradled her in his lap, legs behind her back, holding her tight as he grunted in her ear. Stretched this wide for him, her shoulders flush with the headboard and her own legs wrapped over his waist, Pearl couldn’t move. Couldn’t squirm or writhe.
Her breath was a torrent of fire now, more a series of gasps than anything else. Greg’s thumb worked at her clit, drawing languid circles over that nerve center as his lips crushed hers, as the hand on the headboard held her captive.
And, although that thought brought with it a flash of fear — a trickle of diseased memory — the thought that this was Greg, her knight, her prince withered her fear and washed away those dark memories like flood waters.
She would marry him.
She would even have his children, if that’s what he wanted. If that’s what she wanted.
Because here, now, she was alive.
She’d been given a second chance.
And, just this once, Fate and that wicked step-sister of hers, Destiny, had both turned blind eyes to Pearl Buchanan.
And she planned to take full advantage of that for however long it lasted.
The End
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this book. I honestly hope you loved the book as much as I loved writing it.
Would you do me the honor of leaving me a review? Every review helps a new reader discover an indie author, even if it’s just a sentence.
Really love my writing?
Come join me on Patreon where I share my day’s writing (raw and unedited), character mood boards, Spotify book soundtracks, audio recordings of my books, and so much more! You’ll get a mention in my next book… ;)
Interested? Click the link below!
